Well, That Was Awkward
by KeyLimeChibi
Summary: July 7th, Dark Hour. We defeated the Hierophant, but something wasn't quite right - the door was locked after all. P3P spoilers, Akihiko's POV drabble. Part 2: Junpei's POV, as requested.
1. Well, That Was Awkward

**When in Rome, do as the Romans do.  
When on Shirakawa Boulevard, get naked.**

_Tuesday July 7__th__, Dark hour. _

I never realized how good a hot shower feels.

I mean, everyone likes a hot shower. Or a cold one, when they need a wake-up call. (I know I've had one for that purpose a few times.) But there's something almost . . . alluring about it this time. Don't ask me, Mitsuru is better at words than I am.

I'm not at the dorm, that's for sure. Otherwise the shower would be white and my shampoo would be on the rack and I would be able to hear Junpei's video games from down the hall. No, this place is an irritatingly gaudy violet all around, with cheap hotel crap for wash goods. You know, those travel-sized bottles of soap that you can never get the stuff out of anyhow.

_Embrace your desire . . ._

Excuse me?

Oh shit. Now I'm hearing voices. Wasn't I doing something? Crap, I know it was important. I think. Wasn't it?

_I am the voice of your inner self . . .  
Enjoy the moment . . .  
That which cannot be felt is merely a dream . . . The present is all we have._

. . . Huh.

_Let your desire free you from your shackles . . . such is my wish._

Hold on a second. Desire? For what? To get stronger?

No thanks. I'll do that on my own.

_You cannot deny your instincts . . . Embrace your desire . . . _

Are you implying something?

And all of a sudden, she's in my mind. I never think much about girls; it's distracting. And she's a prime example of it. _She's _distracting. The way she talks, her cheerful attitude despite it all, her friendliness, her trust in everyone . . .

The way her hips swerve when she walks, how strong her legs look in her battle stance – and her personality isn't the only thing that's perky . . .

The shower water's burning now. Might as well get out.

"Hey, it's your turn next." There she is waiting for me, as I walk out of the bathroom. And she looks . . .

Wait a minute.

Hold the damn phone.

I'm standing here half-naked in front of a junior. Not just any junior either – the transfer student and the best persona user I've seen. When I first stepped out, she looked pretty determined about something – now she's a bit taken aback by my apparent nudity.

". . . ?"

Oh yeah, I'm half-naked. All of a sudden, the towel around my waist feels like it's not covering anything.

Ohh_ shit._

_I'm half naked._

"Whoa!" I retreat a little, back against the bathroom door. "Wait, what the hell? What's going on here?"

She just quirks a brow, but there's a subtle redness about her face. "Put your clothes on," she crosses her arms.

I raise a hand out of habit to say . . . something. It's hard to form words at first. Being naked in front of a girl with a crappy piece of cloth between her and your manhood kind of does that to you. Hm.

"Y-you're absolutely right," I stutter, retreating into the bathroom again and slamming the door behind me.

_God damn,_ I pant.

Frickin' Shadows. This is their fault! They fucked with my head and look at what happens; I look like an idiot, pants-less – hell, clothing-less in front of the new girl. (The unbearably _cute _new girl.)

Oh they are so going to get it, the bastards.

Once, I'm fully clothed, o-of course. Pants . . . where'd my pants go . . .

"_Oh, I can finally reach you!"_

Shit!

That made me jump. I took a deep breath; it's just Fuuka. I thank whatever powers above that she doesn't have any visuals on us besides her senses. I try not to make too much noise; Fuuka's talking to _her_ outside.

"_Can you two hear me?"_

"What's going on?" I hear her reply on the other side of the door I'll let them sort things out. Now that I have pants on again, I don't know where my shirt went. Was the bathroom this damn confusing when I went in the shower?

"_-hiko-sempai, can you hear me?"_

I wasn't really listening – it's hard to listen and button a shirt properly, okay? – but I catch the gist of it.

"Y-yeah, loud an clear!" I shout back, louder than I should've but . . . fuck, did she really have to see me in the buff like that? Of _all _people!

I think Fuuka asked what happened, but I don't bother to reply. Too busy finding socks and shoes – huh, I didn't realize I had mismatched socks this morning – and making sure I look normal enough.

Okay, all set to go. Everything's back on. I forgot how protected you feel when you're clothed.

Back out of the bathroom, she's still there waiting for me, calm as usual. "Alright, let's go," I say, clearing my throat. This won't be awkward because it was an accident. As in _not my idea._

Oh who am I kidding? That was the biggest freaking mindfuck of my life since I started using my persona.

"Um, and about earlier . . ." I get her attention again, as she heads to the door. She turns her head just so that her hair bounces cutely, and despite her readiness for battle, her expression is just damn adorable—

Cough. Damn shadow influence. Yeah, shadow influence . . .

"Could you keep that a secret? Please?" I pleaded, hushed like someone was going to hear. I'll never hear the end of it if Junpei found out. Or even Shinji. Hell, even a hard faced guy like Shinji would be laughing his ass off at my expense.

I am never coming to Shirakawa Boulevard again.

* * *

Junpei and Yukari were waiting for us on the 2nd floor, just like Fuuka said.

"Hey, you guys alright? Did anything happen?" Junpei asks.

She shakes her head. (Thank god, she wasn't gonna tell – n-not that I expected her not to keep her word.) "What about you two?" she asks.

We both look at Yukari and Junpei. The latter is grinning like a fool, but that's nothing new. Yukari replies uptightly, "No, _nothing_ happened. Now let's go!"

As we all turn to head out – to destroy the mirrors like Fuuka tells us – she looks back at me, and smiles. There's something gut-wrenchingly charming about it, so I look away stupidly.

Damn shadow influence.

* * *

**AN:  
**_Oh Akihiko. [/blushes] You'll always be my favourite, even if I'm going to date all the guys in P3P and STILL ship you with Mitsuru._

_I have to say, I was immensely happy that it was Akihiko in the shower and not Yukari for FeMC/Minako/Hamuko's scene. Not only because of my immense dislike for Yukari, but there's enough undertone yuri for everyone in her jealous/hatred/bitchiness to Mitsuru. (Who is far more epic. [/is biased])_

_I know she's also 'the protagonist', but I think there should be a character tag for Hamuko too. She's just that awesome. (And I consider her a different character than Minato; they have opposite personalities, after all.)_

_Out of curiosity, I replayed the boss battle with Junpei and Mitsuru in my party and as I expected: Junpei takes Akihiko's place to burst out of the bathroom in his birthday suit. Which really, with the absolute sweetness of his new Social Link, I'm __**A-Okay**__ with. [/thumbs up] Maybe I'll write Junpei's side of this too . . . what do you think?_

_Also, the quoted script is from the actual game - from what I remember of the scene and have copied from youtube videos anyhow. I just did the thoughts and such in between._

_Anyhow, thanks as always for reading! Reviews make me a happy camper. _

_Also, I guess I should put a disclaimer . . But really, if I owned Atlus and Persona, would I __**really**__ be writing -fan-fiction? _


	2. So Close, Yet So Very, Very Far

**A man becomes a man when a girl says, "Put your pants back on."  
And he doesn't shed **_**a single tear.**_

Oh hot damn. Ever gotten stuck in one of those situations you've been anticipating your whole life – or almost as long – but you don't know what to do? I was seriously having that kinda episode. The whole journey here is kind of a mystery, but hell, I don't care if this is the destination.

I mean come on. The entire bathroom's friggin' _purple._ The shampoo is fruity-smelling and the bathtub is totally made for more than one body. Unless I'm in some serious gay bar, (which I would _never _go in, by the way.), this is totally a love hotel. A bang shack. A place with hourly fees. Wink wink, nudge nudge, you know? The place where I'm totally gonna lose my –

_Embrace your desire . . ._

Oh dude, you don't even know the half of it. Though I mean. . . crap, what do I do? I don't know how to do this shit! I mean, every guy watches a little _stuff_ in their life – and really, I only went on that site once; no, seriously – but that doesn't mean when the real deal is laid out before you that you're an expert in getting it on. (Now getting it _up_ is another story, heh – I-I mean—)

Wait a minute, who is this? I'm in the frickin' shower, who the hell are you?

_I am the voice of your inner self . . .  
Enjoy the moment . . .  
That which cannot be felt is merely a dream . . . The present is all we have._

Ain't that the truth.

Man, I've learned nothing from my childhood. I mean, until I joined S.E.E.S. – wait, S.E.E.S. . . . weren't we doing . . . something? And Yuka-tan got all antsy about it.

_Let your desire free you from your shackles . . . such is my wish._

Shackles?

Now I'm a little lost.

_You cannot deny your instincts . . . Embrace your desire . . . _

Desire, huh. . .

Well, I'm gonna get prune-y if I stand in the shower any longer.

I can do this. I'm a man. And this is just one of the many steps into that manhood. I can totally do this. I'm gonna march in there, say something hopefully romantic, woo her enough and then get down to grinding. She's outside waiting for me after all. Oh man, am I keeping her waiting? What if she's already started to strip down? Shit! Wait for me—!

Oh.

She's still fully clothed.

Whatever. She's waiting for me to help her _get comfortable, _I bet. Time for some romantic line to get to the wooing to get to the grinding. Something smooth, something—

"U-um, I. . ."

Real smooth. Oh yeah.

. . . Huh. Isn't there something, er . . . wrong with this picture? (besides the fact that she's not naked yet.)

And she's giving me that _look._ The one chicks have when you make the wrong kind of compliment and they end up taking it as a stab at their weight or something. (Chicks are so sensitive. Yeesh.) I haven't done anything yet, c'mon! I mean, I even put a towel on 'cause even for a place like this, it'd be pretty indecent to just waltz in _a la birthday suit._ (Take that Mitsuru-senpai, you're not the only one who can speak _zee French_ around he—oh hell who am I kidding.)

". . . ?"

Oh yeah. There's a reason she's clothed and not staring at me provocatively.

The same reason I should be clothed too.

. . . Oh, I get it now. _I'm_ what's wrong with this picture. _Shit._

I'm the idiot character, right? I'm supposed to be ignoramous giganticus! She looks as confused as she is offended, so I-I'm allowed to be weirded out too. (Not that I'm, er, not weirded out.)

"W-wait a minute, what's going on? Why am I half-naked?" I screech in a most _manly _manner.

I have no idea, right? No frickin' clue. None whatsoever. Really. Disclaimer: None of those dirty thoughts were mine. W-we're on an important mission—or whatever.

"I think it's a trap," she sighs – I think she's been hangin' with Yuka-tan too much; they both sigh like I'm the most irritating thing on the planet sometimes, but she's way nicer about it than Yuka-tan – and shakes her head. C'mon, Junpei, you're good at playing an idiot. Do it!

"A trap?" I gape, "Man, they really caught us off guard! This coulda been bad . . ."

Though it could've also been very very good . . .

"Then again, this is pretty sweet. . . u-uh."

I guess thinking before speaking is different from speaking what you're thinking. She just raises a brow – a really deadly eyebrow.

"Hah-hahaha! Sh-shouldn't push my luck, huh?" Laugh it off, Junpei. Good boy. The bathroom door is right there, so just ease in casually and put your pants back on . . .

I ran back into that sucker like hell was on my heels.

She hates me now, I just know it. On the bright side, at least it wasn't Yuka-tan. . I would never hear the end of that. Miss perfect awesome leader now's got it out for me 'cause she _almost_ saw my package.

"_Oh, I can finally reach you!"_

I nearly fell into the bathtub, jumping back into my pants when Fuuka gets through. Who needs a bathtub that big? Jesus, the impracticality burns my eyes.

"_Can you two hear me?"_

Oh loud and clear, girl. As long as the blood rushing to my face doesn't burn my ears off. I am never going to be able to get past this one.

Fuuka's kinda just talking to her now. Good thing, 'cause I gotta get my shirt back on. May I say, thanks to all this shadow-bashing though, I'm turning into a good chunk of manscaping, if I do say so myself. Oh yeah, look at those guns in the mirror—!

"_-ei-kun, can you hear me?"_

Ohhh shit!

"Y-yeah, I hear ya!"

What am I doing, covering myself up like a girl who got walked in on . . . There's nothing to hide on my chest anyways! – Oh, hey, I'm finally starting to get more chest hair though. Only took seventeen years.

Okay okay, enough of that. Gotta go back out there and keep cool like usual.

"U-um, ha ha. . ."

Real cool.

"Well, maybe we could try this again some other time. . ." Hey, it was worth a shot. Only. . . she's just doing the eyebrow thing. And has her arms crossed. And she's _armed._ "Ha ha ha . . . just joking."

God, what a buzz kill. I can't believe I thought I was gonna score at a time like this. Even _I'm_ ashamed of myself.

"Let's go . . ." I grumble.

Yuka-tan and Mitsuru are up on the next floor like Fuuka said. Both of them seem to refuse to look the other in the eye – Yukari more than usual.

"How are you guys?" Our fearless leader asks, any hint of embarrassment from before gone. Man, if she was a dude, she'd have brass balls, for sure.

Our fearless – or supposedly fearless – Kirijo princess insists, "W-we're fine! Nothing happened!"

Ohh dude, dude. Does that mean they almost got to some lady-on-lady action? Ho'snap!

But of course, before my stunning wit can shine, All three girls give me that look like they just _know_ what I'm going to say. How do girls do that? Or is it my devilish grin that gives it away?

God, you'd think it'd be envious to be with three chicks on the Shirakawa strip.

Someone kill me now.

**Owari.**

**AN:**

Junpei.  
JUNPEI.  
_JUNPEI._

I love him in such a bromance way, I thought I would handle not being able to date him due to the most awesome goth loli in the history of gaming. Turns out I can't because they have to make his social link THE DAMN NEAR SWEETEST TEN SCENES OF THE GAME.

This man. _THIS MAN._ [/cries a river]

And while he is no silver-haired boxer glistening in sweat (Not you, Ryohei) nor foul-mouthed loner nor evil incarnated _nor_ shota in boy-shorts, Junpei will always keep a special place in my heart. He's so sweet. He's like . . . like a girl's gay best friend while being one of the most heterosexual game characters Japan has pumped out. (IMO. Please don't hurt me. OTL)

I find Junpei to be a lot like Yosuke in some senses. One of the senses being I can't write either of them worth crap yet I love them so. [/dies] So, please don't mind his 'playing the idiot'. Despite my _need_ to make the obvious dirty jokes and innuendos, this was actually harder to write than Akihiko's. I guess it's just easier to be romantically dense as a brick shithouse. (ILYSFM AKI NO REALLY.)

I hope you enjoyed! Any grammar problems, please point them out~


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